We're Coming Home
by Mr. Blu- All Will Be Well
Summary: The birth of the Titan Trio. M for language.


**YEAR 844, BY GERMANIC HEADSTATE CALENDAR**

"Reiner," Dr. Zelig Braun said to his son, the concisity of his voice cutting through the boy's thoughts. "Did you hear me? You'd best listen if you want to lead the operation. If we don't have efficient leadership, it will collapse."

The twelve year old turned his head again. Reiner didn't want to listen. He would have it under control, at least, assuming Zelig would allow him out of these stark white rooms and corridors. They didn't even blind him anymore, he'd been down here so long. What was there to the world, if it wasn't all just conditioning and gas chambers? There had to be something...

"Listen," Reiner almost spat at his father. "Can you just drug me and get it over with? When it's over, I'll be one of the people that don't have to listen to directi-"

"And it'll be your path, blah, blah, blah," Zelig shot back. "How many times in the past six years do you think I've heard this speech? Another round won't change my mind on this." Zelig's face softened, and he put a hand on his son's shoulder. "Now, Reiner, how badly do you want to leave?" The boy's eyes closed briefly, and he took a deep, cleansing breath. Finally, Reiner exhaled.

"More than anything...," he whispered. "You know, dad."

"Then you'll listen."

"Fine."

"Our great leaders have given our King the task of retrieving a device called the Melody Gene. It is located within one of the only surviving human populations on the planet that survived the Godfall. In turn, the King gave us the task of creating soldiers fit to penetrate the defenses, if any, around the Gene, although we doubt our kin within their cities have any knowledge of what they hold. Our work yielded a surprising secret: by combining the DNA of the Godsends with various living specimens throughout the biological kingdoms, we could create an alterational smoke, giving humans the abilities to become the creatures. You will be one of them.

Your job will be to recover the Gene, and present it to our King."

"Is that all?" Reiner asked, nearly bursting with triumph at the thought of finally being free.

"Yes. But, I have to warn you. The smoke will give your brain...some addling. You'll be mindless for an unknown period of time, as will the other test subjects. At some point you'll come to, and make your way after the Gene. There's...no telling how long you could be rampant. The last woman we tried...still hasn't brought back the Gene, and that was almost thirty years ago. Anybody you know would be either dead by then, or too alzheimic to remember you."

Reiner had to think about that one for a moment. It would be like he had...never existed. All memory of him wiped away from the world, and the sun would set without him knowing. And when the moon arose...its light would not touch him. But then again, he knew no one, he cared for no one, and the same was delivered back to him. Damn the sun and the moon and the stars and the whole fucking universe. Reiner would escape if it killed him.

"I'm ready. I've listened. Give me what I've earned," he said, his teeth grating ever so slightly at the thought of his unrewarded sagacity.

"Very well," Zelig replied. A pleased smile came over the middle aged man's face as he pointed to the room where, "the next step takes place." The door to Reiner's room opened silently as he stepped out into the brightly lit, white paneled hall. All around him he heard buzzsaws, drills, needles clattering to the floor, and wild, dreadful screams. It did not vex the young boy, however, as many a night, those same sounds had kept his eyes wide open in mortal terror. Now, though...Reiner pitied the men who's voices echoed through the very walls.

Third door on the right, just as Zelig had directed him. The chamber inside was not the blinding albacore color of the rest of the facility, but the critical grey color of concrete. The change in his vision almost caused him to fall to the ground. Reiner's mouth filled with vomit, which he regurgitated on the only thing he could. The floor.

However, a fire deterrent, evidently left from the facility's previous use, sent water cascading from the ceiling to wash away the filth before it polluted the chamber. After some time squinting, Reiner's vision remedied itself. And before him were..._others_.

Both of them children, there was a boy and a girl. The girl was reclining against the only pillar in the chamber, a grey, round stalk. Her face was smooth and alabaster, with eyes like a vulture's, and a large nose. Her hair was blonde, and pinned back in a style of which Reiner did not know the name. She looked as if...as if the tilting of the Earth on its axis grated on her ears, or like the smell of her own musk overpowered her olfactory organs. As if she was the most cynical person in the world. A white hoodie and jeans graced her form.

The boy, was a direly different story. He looked to, if he were to stand up, be at least a foot taller than Reiner. His hair was a dark black, overshadowing brown eyes that were full of a small, whispering fear of the whole world. His skin was darker than both Reiner's and the girl's. The boy's nose was narrow, like a pencil, and his cheek was red and purple with bruises. He wore dark blue, dusty jeans and a plain black tee.

"Come on in," the girl said, the dour look on her face not disappearing . "The experiment's ready, that's Bertolt, he's a huge pussy, I'm Annie, you aren't my problem, conversation is over."

"Now, wait just a-", Reiner started, but his voice was drowned out by a loud intercom. It was Zelig.

"Alterative will be ejected in 10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1...", the doctor's voice droned.

Reiner closed his eyes tight, fearing what would come next. His fears were not necessary, however, as a low hissing sound reached his ears, and a very, very strong smell of blood found his nostrils. The latter sense was not something Reiner was unfamiliar with, but it made him gag all the same. Annie, on the other hand, either didn't care about the smell or wasn't showing it. Reiner hesitantly opened his eyes. The concrete box was the same, except for a three small pumps that had ejected from the floor of the chamber.

Reiner must not have seen them when he first entered. They surely hadn't been there before. Had they?

The pumps had begun to expunge dense streams of black dark yellow smoke from their heads. Bertolt began crying when the smoke wreathed around his foot. Annie seemed to move backwards away from it with the smallest movement she could muster. But the smoke was rapidly approaching the opposite side of the chamber.

It closed the gap far too soon.

Reiner first caught whiff of the foul-smelling gas and his vision literally shook. His nose felt as though someone had stuck a cattle prod up his nostril. Then the smoke reached his mouth. Reiner's lips instantly withered and cracked under the fog, and his tongue felt like sandpaper. With no choice but to breathe, the boy took in a large breath of the smoke and felt blood run out of his nose. He could _feel_ it literally piercing and roping around in his lungs. Reiner stumbled to the ground, screaming in agony. His throat was on fire. He could take the pain no longer!

He began to claw at his throat. More blood began running between Reiner's fingers, and still the smoke forced its way inside him. He coughed, and the boy felt something tear. He was rolling around on the floor now, tearing out large clumps of hair and screaming at the tops of his lungs. Tears were streaming from his face, only to be dried by the time they reached his chin.

Soon Annie and Bertolt had begun to experience the same derision. Their faces contorted in pain, their lips bled, their eyes watered.

But through all the distractions of the physical world, Reiner remembered something.

_"Daddy," Reiner said, his boyish eight year old face pouting slightly. "Why can't we go outside? It's too bright in here, and we've been here a long time."_

_Zelig switched on the light to Reiner's bedroom within the facility, sighing quietly at his son's incredulousness. "Reiner, bud, we went over this before. Daddy has a lot of work to do. You remember the cool experiment I showed you? With the Armadillo?"_

_"Yeah I did!"_

_"Well," Zelig continued, his face softening as he looked at Reiner. He opened the blankets for the small child to enter. Reiner slipped underneath in an instant. "I was doing those things with it to try and get something back for the King. Some mean people stole from him and he asked me to get his stuff back."_

_"But," Reiner's face looked confused. "How does an Armadillo get back stolen stuff for the King?"_

_Zelig chuckled slightly. "You'll see, Reiner, you'll see. Now, time for bed." The doctor got up from the bed, had turned out the light and was about to exit the room when his child exclaimed again. _

_"Daddy...ummm...could I help you find the King's stuff...maybe? It's only right I help him, he's helped us so much!"_

_He turned his head to look at Reiner, the boy's eyes full of life. Zelig smiled again and said,_

_"Yes. Maybe one day. But it's going to be painful. More painful than you can think of. If you can be strong enough to beat that, you'll be remembered forever._

_As a hero."_

Reiner rolled over, very very slowly so as not to agitate the spread of the smoke any further. A fist planted itself into the ground, unheard over the screaming of Reiner's companions. His head slowly lifted, eyes burning. He saw Zelig watching through the port window of the door, stone-faced. It made Reiner furious that he should be watched like some sort of animal while he, Bertolt, and Annie were tortured in this chamber. So slowly, and surely...

Reiner stood.

Every, agonizing step he took threatened to down him, to finally force him to his knees and for this smoke to kill him. But Reiner wouldn't allow it. He had a world to see. He stumbled, hitting the floor hard with his knee. It crunched, and Reiner couldn't even think with the awful feeling it caused. He had to get up. Get up. Get up. Get up. Get up. And so he stood again. And moved his right leg. His left leg. Right leg. Left. Right. Left. Right.

Reiner's hand pounded against the glass of the port window, his face a mask of rage.

"Listen up, you fucker!" he howled. "We're coming home! Damn the Gene and damn the gods! I'M BRINGING THEM BACK!"

The last thing Reiner saw before the pain finally got to him and cast him off into a slumber was three bursts of golden lightning, so brilliant that the light around them turned a dark yellow color.

He felt armored now, lean, strong, intimidating.

Ready.

Ready to see the world.


End file.
